reading and writing about why we work

October 2016

10/31/2016

When I think about the education system of College in America, I think about all the courses that we need to take in order to graduate in the area we want. I consider that general education shouldn't be two years long but one or less, adding to this that, students should have the right to choose their general education depending on the area they're majoring in. This would help them to get more experience and skills in the area they are majoring in and save money along the way. I also think about the time consuming it is to complete general education right now, and also about all the money we need in order to complete College. Although I do not agree with the system we have now, I definitely think it works for some people. Completing two years of general education give the students who are not sure what they want to major in, time to figure out what they want to study and then choose their major. But on the other hand, this system is not thinking about the people who are ready to go into the professional world. For example, a girl who already knows what she wants to study should be able to choose her general education classes based on the career she wants to major in without the need of two years of mandatory general education. That will help her get well prepared for her future instead of learning things she doesn't really need because those are classes unrelatable with her major.

10/28/2016

If I could re-write the education system in any way, I would set it up as such so that students would not feel afraid or degraded over failure, because that is where the most growth comes from. School would be more about learning than about chasing a grade or learning how to ace a test. There would still be deadlines in school, but they would be worked with, so that a student didn’t feel pressured to “just get an assignment done” but to immerse themselves completely in it. At the end of the semester the grade would be brought into question based on their work ethic and what they learned rather than how well they followed the “system to an A”.

I also feel like there isn’t enough time in school to discover your true passion over a major you may like have someday for a career. Bain talks about how many of these successful students in the beginning ended up liking too much and taking on a broader education in “Liberal Arts” rather than something narrow. I feel it should be stressed to start with a broader education to find an area of majors you are interested in, while at the same time seeing others that connect to it that you may also be interested in. Because some people have absolutely no idea what they want to do with their life, and in that education may become meaningless if this option to explore is defined as useless. Taking away this broader education or deeming it useless would be like restricting your learning growth. We would never think harder than we had to, do more than necessary, it would be like developing a narrow topic, and writing no essay for it.

In my experience I feel so many students get caught up in doing the work and just trying to achieve a grade, they don’t have time to do anything else outside of school but homework. They are not really taking the time to learn themselves or explore what they could do rather than what they have to do, for a grade.

Many kids in my graduating class are going to four-year universities just to get the degree, not get a career. These people have no idea what they want to do after they graduate. And most college graduates don't even use their degree within five years of obtaining it because they've realized that they don't like what they're doing, or there aren't any jobs available in the area they were trained in.

I am planning to become a high school agriculture educator, and for the past four years or so, The National FFA Organization has been telling its members, "Teach Ag! Teach Ag!", because of the shortage and need for ag teachers in California, and the rest of the nation. But it has already been four years, and it will be at least another four until I have the credentials to teach. Will there still be a shortage once I have graduated college?

I think too many adults are expecting high school graduates to know what they want to do with the rest of their lives immediately after finishing high school. Unfortunately for those adults, that is often not the case, and that's why there is the "undeclared major". For the lucky individuals who know what they want to do, why take multiple general education courses that have no relationship to their major? This reason is why I think the college education system should be geared towards getting students out into the work force; that is if they understand what area that would be. The students that are undeclared should take the general education courses and the fun elective classes that will expose them to what they want to study, thus preparing them to further investigate the subject.

10/27/2016

The reason why most students look forward to college is because it’s their first opportunity to actually be able to choose what to study. There are still general education classes but I think that’s okay. As long as students are not required to take so many that they get stuck there. These classes allow for a bit of choice as well. As a biology major, I’m required to take only some of the same classes to transfer as an art major. I’m going to be taking mostly chemistry classes, which makes sense because it’s background knowledge that I need for my future career path. But even classes that I don’t necessarily need (like English) are teaching me something. General education classes are not completely useless.

I think that the problem with required classes is that they make students feel powerless when it comes to their decisions. Like Bain, I believe it’s very important for students to feel in control of their education. When told that they need to take x amount of classes in order to transfer, it’s like going back to high school. College should be about being able to specialize in your field and being given the opportunity to pursue deep learning in not just one subject but any you may choose. Too often, college presents itself as another check list. College should be a place that allows students to find their passion, not an environment that only causes stress.

Bain discusses the importance of higher education, however, is critical to the structure of the educational system. He believes the way the traditional school system is designed is to have all students follow the same guidelines, take the same required courses hindering the intellectual growth process. College is no different. I believe anyone who wants to better themselves usually does so through a higher education. College is a place where people of all ages come to improve their lives through the process of learning. I believe students should have the choice of taking a variety of required courses as it expands the mind and encourages deeper learning. Although, for people like me who absolutely know what they want to do in their lives, I believe there should be opportunities for those people to take the required courses dedicated to their respective field. I appreciate the college experience and the atmosphere of deeper learning. However, I can’t help but think about how memorizing acts of Congress from the 19th century, or how typing a million papers about privileged people’s life stories will help me down the road when I’m working in a clinical setting where the only thing that matters is the task at hand. Higher education should be recognized for the benefits to our society, however, the educational system should also recognize time is also an important factor.

Elementary school, to middle school, and then high school, each and every one of us has experienced 12 years of on going classes that we must take to for requirements to the next grade. I believe that college should be more specific instead of all the general ed classes. We spend half our lives going to school to take classes to prepare us for college, which is why once we get through all of those general ed classes that we’ve been taking for preparation to get to the point to get ready for our futures. If we must pick a major why not take classes to prepare us for the specific major rather than spending our time on classes that most likely will not help us in our futures. Higher education should be the time we learn the most for ourselves for our future. I think more people would go to college if the idea of college was to go for your major, take classes specifically for that major, and be done within 2 to 3 years rather than needing to either take 4 years straight from high school or 2 years and then having to transfer for another 2 years. Higher education should just be straight to the point.

I believe that America's education system should be similar to what it is now. Bain's idea of educating students in a broad area and then focus on one specific field is beneficial to basically everyone. This will especially benefit those who are unclear of the career they would like to pursue in their higher education. However, I do believe in the idea that college students should be prepared for their professional lives as quickly as possible. By doing this, students do not have to spend as much money on school. One of the things keeping many students from attending college is the financial aspect of it. The prices of college tuition have become ridiculously high and this keeps many students from attending college. Student loans are always an option, however, paying off those loans in a reasonable amount of time is not an option available to everyone. While genera education is important, I believe that the 13 years we spent in grade school taught us enough surface ideas about different subjects. If a student would like to go deeper and study the history of the greeks or chemistry or calculus, then they should have the right to choose to go on and study those things. I ultimately believe that giving students the option to be quickly prepared for their professional lives will boost their overall morale and motivate them to finish what they started.

I joined the Coast Guard when I was 20 years old because I didn't have money for college. I planned on only doing four years active duty, but they kept giving me amazing jobs, in dream locations, so ended up doing ten years. A lot of people were baffled by my decision to exit the military with ten years of service, thinking I only have ten years left until retirement, but I was completely fed up with the job and wanted to challenge myself academically and invest in myself. So I'm starting from the beginning. I have found the general courses that are required to be very informative and interesting, often times evoking deep thought. For this reason, I think having more specialized colleges that would accept general study associate degrees as a requirement would help. Then the specialized college should have major market or career opportunities available in that field of study and also guarantee a high percentage of those graduating college students job placement. By doing this, colleges would have to show their own effectiveness! Imagine if we were able to produce a statistic showing that only 20% of all graduated students from USC were able to get jobs in 2015. I think the colleges need to be held more accountable to the students!

Is shortening a four year education into two years an acceptable idea? To some it may be ideal, but we could possibly point out the differences between the two. The structure of the education system that we have today is dependable. It helps students approach different courses and learn its aspect. By approaching numerous diverse courses, it definitely benefit students especially when they do not know their major. Students also benefit from today's education system by allowing them to expand their minds because there are no limits to their knowledge. Who knows having that extra knowledge can be very useful in their future. This system allows students to obtain multiple degrees in different fields due to finding more than one interest. Obtaining multiple degrees were caused because their general education let them explore all the broad range of ideas. However, I also agree that we should offer a quicker route of education to students who have decided on their career. For those who know their career, should focus on the courses that relates to their major because it will definitely save them time, money and even stress. For instance, my sister is an English major. The requirements she had to take was an oceanography lab class and mathematics. Neither of these classes are related to her major and if she eliminated all the unnecessary courses, she would have graduated in two years instead of five. She could have made a difference in the world sooner rather than later.

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." -Nelson Mandela

In What the Best College Students Do, the author Ken Bain(Best Teachers Institute) discusses many different ideas of what successful students do in order to also be successful in the work force. One of these ideas includes that the college education system(video) should help students explore a broad range of ideas while also providing them with specialized, in depth study and mastery of one particular field of major. Although I do agree with Bain, I also believe that schools should focus on helping students reach their professional careers quickly. Schools should do this by focusing on technical skills they will need for their career. I believe that when students know what field they want to work in, they should take classes that focus specifically with that field instead of taking irrelevant classes. For example, in an engineering class, students learn how to apply different techniques to better the work in an engineering career. Through taking these specified classes, you can fully focus on how those techniques will contribute in the professional work and allow you to enter the profession faster. However, I do believe that these ideas depend on the major a student desires. While majors like engineering work best with specificity and enter work quicker, there are majors like criminology that benefit from broad ranges of ideas and many times takes longer to fully understand the profession. Classes that would highly contribute to a major like criminology include classes like statistics, psychology, sociology, and communications. All of these classes have one way of contributing to the actual professional field. Whether it involves how people think, how groups of people think, how to communicate to different types of people, and how to apply statistics to your environment.

Bain, Ken. What The Best College Students Do, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England 2012.